The Homemaker

Dorothy Canfield Fisher turns the ordinary American household inside out in this quietly radical 1924 novel. Evangeline Knapp keeps an immaculate home and a resentful heart, while her husband Lester flounders at the department store and dreads each day. Then an accident leaves Lester unable to walk, and the family is forced to swap places. Evangeline takes a job in retail and finally thrives, and Lester, confined to the house, discovers he is a patient, loving parent whose troubled children begin to blossom under his care. Written long before such questions became common, the book asks whether the roles men and women are handed actually fit them. This free PDF and EPUB edition brings back a warm, sharp-eyed story about work, marriage, and finding the life that suits you.